New ANPI Technical Dossier

Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)

Battery energy storage systems (BESS) are experiencing exponential development and are gradually becoming a permanent feature of our landscape, largely due to their ability to contribute to the integration of intermittent renewable energy sources into the electricity grids. Electrical energy storage is indeed one of the links in the energy transition that is taking place.

BESS are among the critical entities in the energy sector, as they provide an essential service to maintain the balance between electricity supply and demand. BESS will therefore quickly be subject to high security requirements to ensure their availability, integrity and reliability. This means that BESS owners and operators will need to put in place robust measures to prevent incidents, such as fire and malicious damage, which could compromise the security of the energy system as a whole.

Our fire and rescue services are preparing to deal with such incidents, and are refining their response techniques, although there are still many risk issues. However, we cannot rely solely on our fire brigades… we must act upstream.

It is therefore essential to prevent the occurrence of damage as much as possible, to identify the risks and to take the appropriate measures. And when the incident occurs, to facilitate as much as possible the intervention of the emergency services.

The purpose of this new ANPI Technical File is to define the measures by which the risks associated with lithium-based energy storage systems can be controlled. We refer specifically to lithium-ion containing energy carriers, as they can develop a thermal runaway reaction in the event of an accident. Some spectacular incidents have recently highlighted their dangerousness.

These measures are based on risk identification, from which scenarios that could occur are derived. Based on these scenarios, objectives have been formulated to create an acceptable level of safety. Prevention and protection measures can then be derived from these objectives. These measures aim to reduce the probability of an incident, to prevent or limit the negative consequences of such an incident.

This dossier is intended for the widest possible audience: decision-makers (SMEs/large companies), industries, preventionists, facility managers, operators, technical managers, insurers, emergency services, authorities, event organisers, etc.

This Technical Dossier will be available in French and Dutch, and will be on sale from the end of March on the ANPI e-shop (https://www.anpi.be/en/eshop).

In the meantime, we offer you a small extract, which appeared as an article in a previous issue of ANPI’s Fire & Security Alert Magazine (see PDF files in French and Dutch).

For all information and further contact: ANPI – Information and Media Center, imc@anpi.be

Legal photo credits to mention if using this picture:
© Vattenfall / Jorrit Lousberg